When To Love
by Ookami No Kokoro
Summary: Summer is starting and everyone is excited. Except for one boy name Roxas who is blowing all his exams and not caring what happens in his life. A stranger from an elite school comes and changes his life forever. AkuRoku with some RikuSora.
1. It Begins

When to Love

Chapter 1

"Lame, lame, lame." A boy with blonde, spiky hair that was slightly curled to one side sat next to a window and repeated the same word over and over again in his head. With one pencil in his hand, he took down notes that his teacher instructed him to do and went back to staring out the window. The blonde took a deep silent sigh, thinking of the slowing days of school. Only four more months until school got out and everyone was starting down the days until their freedom from tests, reports, and nagging teachers.

Except for him.

For some reason the boy hated summer. He also hated the slow sluggish days of school and how everyone talks about their summer plans.

"Roxas Tsukanaki."

Roxas snapped out of his daze and immediately stood up out of his seat.

"I want you to listen Mr. Tsukanaki, you're failing every class at this time of the year and I expect you to do good this year."

Roxas hung his head in shame.

"Yes, Sensei." He said in a low voice.

After two hours of mindless lessons from his teachers, school was finally over for the day. Roxas began to loosen his blue plaid tie as he opened his locker. He opened it and took out his books for homework. He slowly put each book in his backpack totally unaware that his friend was hiding behind his locker door.

"Sora, What are you doing?" The spiky haired brunet lifted one finger to his lips and indirectly told him to 'shut up'.

"It's Kairi," he whispered a little loud, "She's following me everywhere!" Roxas was confused.

"Dude, did it ever struck your mind that she may like you?" Despair spread across Sora's face.

"I don't like her! I mean she's nice and all but she's not my type!"

"Then what is your type?" Sora was about to answer but was cut off by an annoyingly familiar voice.

"Sora, where did you go?" A red headed girl turned the corner and spotted Sora hiding behind Roxas.

"There you are silly! Come on now and let's study!" Sora panicked and sprinted toward the exit with Kairi running after him. Roxas shook his head and head out of the now deserted school.

Roxas walk through the empty streets of Twilight town with nothing on his mind except his failing grades. He reached his destination at last. He looked up at the old clock tower that stood right in the heart of Twilight town. He made his way up to the top by climbing the long spiral stair case that only a few people can climb on. Once on top, Roxas set his backpack right next to the door and sat on the edge of the tower and stared off into the sunset.

After a good five minutes, he grabbed his backpack and began to do his homework. He couldn't understand most of the math problems nor could he understand the kanji that was his Japanese homework. Roxas realized that he needed to pay more attention in class but it was so boring.

"Oh geez … what is it?... what do I… here I need to… find the square root of seven!" He mumbled to himself for an hour and eventually gave up.

He stuffed his homework in his backpack and laid his back to stare at the orange blotches called clouds. Suddenly, he heard the door open and slam in one second and immediately sat up. Sora was exhausted and slowly walked to Roxas with sweat running down his face.

"Yeesh! What happened to you?" Sora collapsed next to Roxas and managed to say one word.

"Kairi!" He fell on the floor and pretended to be dead. Roxas laughed a bit and asked how he managed to escape from her clutches this time.

"You won't believe how she tried to teach math!"

"How?"

"She used puppets to explain it to me!"

"Puppets!"

"Puppets."

"What possessed her to do that?"

"I was complaining that it was too hard 'cause one, it was hard especially how she explained it and two, I thought it would make give up on me but that only made it worse."

"How did you shake her off?"

"I offered to buy her ice cream and ran for my life."

"Is she looking for you?"

"Ooooooooohhhhhhh yeah, she's looking for me." Roxas laughed at the fact that Sora was being taught by a girl that wanted to get in his pants. That's what Roxas thinks of Kairi.

"Sora did you bring your KDS?"

"Of course." He held up a silver compact handheld game system with KDS engraved on the latch. It wasn't long for the two boys to battle each other out on their game. Roxas had the upper hand since his character was at level two hundred and six and Sora's character was at level eighty-four. Sora was beating Roxas for the first time till he used his special combo move that knocked out Sora's character.

"Noooooooo!"

"You lost Sora."

"Great now I have to buy the ice cream!"

"Hope you have enough money."

"Shut up!"

Then the clock tower struck at six o' clock. Both boys took their attention off their game and stared at the time for a while.

"I better get going Roxas."

"Alright, see ya tomorrow Sora." He grabbed his backpack and headed out the door. Bored and alone, Roxas played his game by himself and beat every computer challenger in the game. Roxas stared at the distance to see if the sun is still out there. When the sunlight disappeared from the sky, Roxas picked himself up and walked out the door.

He walked the streets alone again all the way to his house. Upon arriving to his house, he called out for his mother.

"Mom, I'm home!" There was no answer.

The house was pitch black and that told him right away that his mother was not home. He turned on the kitchen lights and found a note and a snack under a Japanese food guard. He read the note.

"I'm sorry honey,

I'm not able to be home again. Work has been piling up these days so I can't be home to make dinner. Please don't get into any trouble while I'm gone. I left a sandwich for you to eat later and if you're still hungry there's some food in the fridge so help yourself. I love you and I'll be home as soon as I can. Be good!

Love,

Mom"

Roxas looked under the guard and saw a turkey sandwich. He sighed and began to eat it.

"Great, another turkey sandwich." Roxas said in his head.

When he was finished he went into his messy room full of clothes all over the floor and books and papers scattered everywhere. He dug around for a clean or almost clean shirt and pants. He turned off the lights and sat in the middle of his bed. Roxas looked around at his deserted room hearing nothing but the thoughts in his head.

He was about to go to sleep till he felt an object up against his foot. Roxas retrieved it from his covers and saw that it was a photo. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to see the picture and he realized that it was something dear to him. It was his father and a younger version of himself on the clock tower eating his favorite food, sea salt ice cream. He remembered that day so clearly and how could he forget the first time he ate the blue popsicle.

Roxas hugged his knees to his chest and stared out the window to look out the moon. He knew tomorrow was not a going to be good day and he wished he forget it already but it was glued in his head. Tomorrow was the day that his father passed away. He hid under his sheets and whispered to himself one wish.

"I wish you where here dad." And he drifted off to sleep.

The next day Roxas woke up late as usual and rushed to get ready. He frantically searched for his dress shirt and his blue plaid pants and tie. Luckily his mother had his backpack and lunch ready for him at the door.

"Bye mom and thanks!" he said as he ran out the door.

"Roxas wait!" his mother called out. She snatched him and pulled his face in for a kiss on the cheek.

"Mom! I'm not a little kid anymore! I'm late as it is." Then the spiky haired boy ran out the door leaving his mother to watch him run to school once again.

"You'll always be my little boy." She whispered in the soft blowing wind.

Roxas was in a rush as usual and ran to his shortcut while repeating the directions in his head.

"Make a right at the bakery, then straight through the alley, and then climb over the fence." He climbed the tall wired fence and cautiously jumped down so he won't get his uniform dirty. He looked the people that walked on the sidewalk above and tried to find a way to get up there. Then he heard the first bell in the distance and knew he was late to class. He didn't want another detention so he found a dumpster to climb on and try to climb to the sidewalk.

Unfortunately for him, Roxas was too short. In his head he tried to find a way to climb the fence but nothing came. Time was running short so he went on his toes and tried to jump to grab the railing and pull himself up to the sidewalk. He missed the first time and tried again. Using all of his strength he jumped and got a hold of the railing.

He started to hoist his body up and grabbed a loose brick in the sidewalk. All of a sudden, a man with a cart rolled over Roxas's hand and caused him to let go of his grip. He let out a painful scream and fell into the trash can below his feet, head first.

A crowd was formed around the school gate when Roxas arrived. He was awestruck to see everyone not in class and he was more surprised when he saw all the teachers out there with them. He stood under a tree away from the crowd since he didn't know what was going on.

"Geez, what's going on?"

"Some exchange students are coming to the school from a really fancy school." Roxas looked up to see Sora sitting on a tree branch. He swung down from his shady spot to talk to Roxas.

"Man Roxas, did you get mugged or something?" Roxas looked at himself and saw that he was a complete mess from head to toe. Stains covered his once clean white shirt and trash was stuck in his hair with an offending odor that made Sora plug his nose.

"It's a long story. Why is everyone out here?"

"From what I hear, all the teachers wanted to give these 'exchange students' a formal greeting."

"But how come no one is in class."

"The teachers wanted them to be comfortable so they brought everyone out here. But I think the real story is that the girls wanted to see if they were hot." Roxas looked at some of the girls and saw that some of them were giggling and talking amongst themselves; he thought that they were probably talking these exchange students.

"For some reason I believe you. But why are they so special? We get exchange students all the time around here."

"Apparently, they are elite students from a fancy school and have the best grades up there and even graduated a year early."

"Why come here?"

"If you haven't noticed our school has the lowest grades in Twilight town."

At that moment a sleek black car drove up to the school curb and everyone at the gate fell silent. Then the car door swung open and two people stepped out. They both wore a black tuxedo with sunglasses. Aside from their matching outfits they look completely different. One had a cool calm look on his perfectly chiseled face and silver hair that gleamed in the sunlight.

The other one was a bit taller than the other man in black with a wide smile across his face with a green mark under each eye and extremely long and spiky red hair that reached down to his mid back. The principal approached them with, what appeared to be, a forced smile. He talked to the two men but Roxas and Sora were too far away to hear a single word. When it looked like the principal stopped talking to them the silver haired man took of his sunglasses and said one word.

"Thanks." With a smile and all the girls went crazy. Then the principal escorted the men through the crowd of crazy school girls. Roxas and Sora tried to get a better view of the exchange students but all the screaming and jumping girls were blocking the view.

"Hey Roxas!" He saw Sora sitting on the same tree branch as before and extended his hand to Roxas.

"Thanks." He lifted himself on the tree branch and sat next to Sora. They both saw the crowd follow the men into school and were soon left alone in the schoolyard.

"So the girls think that silver haired guy is hot. Huh. Maybe this is you're lucky day Sora."

"Why you say that, Roxas?"

"Maybe Kairi will stop liking you."

"Nah."

The two boys jumped from the branch they were sitting on and started to head for class. Then a chill went through their spines at the same time that made them stop in their tracks.

"Hey Roxas,"

"What?"

"I have a feeling that those guys are going to be in our class." The thought of that fact made Roxas scared to go to class.

"Shut up, Sora!"

"What … why?"

"Cause every time you say things like that, they end up being true." That comment made Sora confused for a moment and the boys proceeded to class.

"Then again Sora, I had the same feeling." Roxas thought on his way to class. He knew this day would change everything forever.


	2. New Arrivals

When to Love

Chapter 2

New Arrivals

"Class. I would like to introduce to you our new exchange students." Roxas and Sora were in a state of shock when they saw those two faces from earlier and groaned in silence. The teacher noticed their silent complaining.

"Well before I say anything more, I want our new arrivals to talk about themselves. So if one of you could start please."

The silver haired man stepped forward and pulled off his sunglasses and tucked them in his jacket pocket. His emerald green eyes pierced through the hearts of the girls and all of them in the room started to blush. Then he started to speak.

"My name is Riku Yuki. I'm ranked first out of ten thousand in Starfall Academy's Advanced class B,"

Roxas and Sora were shocked to hear how Riku could rank first out of ten thousand.

I don't play sports and I don't want to hear any offers to any club 'cause I'm not interested,"

Roxas swore he heard some of the basketball team groan.

"I was born on the tiny island on the edge of town or, some would call it, Destiny Island."

Hearing that name, Roxas turned to see Sora. Roxas knew for a fact that Sora lived on Destiny Island, but he never heard of Riku living on the island with Sora. He wondered if Sora was hiding something. Sora on the other hand was very confused, he didn't know that Riku was on the island or he even exsisted.

"As for the ladies," Riku shifted his hair to one side, "I'm interested in a _unique_ types."

At that moment the girls were screaming as loud when they were outside.

"Alright ladies settle down!" the teacher tried to quiet them so the next man could talk. The fiery red head stepped forward and took off his sunglasses like Riku and began.

"I'm Axel Atsui. I'm ranked first out of five hundred thousand in Starfall Academy' Advance class A,"

The class was in awe at that fact that he ranked first out of a half million people. _Is that even possible?_ Roxas thought to himself. _He must have private teachers or something._

"Unlike my friend here, I'm exceptionally good at sports. But like my friend," He suddenly wrapped his arm around Riku and pulled him toward himself.

"I interested a very _different_ type."

Roxas wasn't really paying any attention but he felt a pair of eyes on him. When he looked up he saw that Axel's emerald eyes on his ocean blue eyes. Roxas couldn't figure out this feeling he had in his heart but it was heavy and his breathing was beginning to quicken as he stared more in to his eyes. It felt like an eternity when he was staring at him but broke contact when his teacher was started to say something.

"Since Mr. Yuki and Mr. Atsui," Riku cut in

"We prefer our first names if you don't mind." The teacher tried to hold back his anger when he heard that comment,

"Um, Right, Riku and Axel came all the way from Starfall Academy to actually help our school's um, rather embarrassing grades." Despair spread across the

classroom.

"They are going to tutor our school to improve our reputation and they are going to start tutoring our class some other students today."

At that moment the whole class moaned. The teacher wasn't pleased.

"Moan all you want, but I will tell you that this class has the lowest grades in the whole school so if any of you miss a tutoring lesson you will automatically fail this class."

Despair quickly turned into fear especially for Sora and Roxas since they are both failing and ranked last in the class.

"I expect to see you both Tsukanaki and Tsuna."

They were both uneasy. But Roxas couldn't shake the feeling from earlier. Why was Axel staring at him? And why only him? This feeling stuck with Roxas the whole day.

At the end of the day, the whole class was told to go to a different classroom so their tutoring lessons can begin. The crowd began to moved out the classroom and proceed to their after school torture lesson. Roxas was able to slip out of the crowd and made his way to his locker. Sora spotted Roxas and pushed people out of the way to get to the blonde.

"Roxas what the heck are you doing!" Sora whispered as Roxas opened his locker

"What does it look like? I'm not going to some stupid after school class just because a teacher threatened me." Roxas retrieved his books and exited school.

Sora hastily followed Roxas out the door and tried to convince him to go back to class. Roxas ignored every single plead that was made to him and he walked faster toward the clock tower.

"Roxas! I don't wanna fail the class! Lets go back!" Sora tried to be whiney as possible and even clung on to Roxas's arm and put dead weight so he could stop.

He snapped.

"If you're so worried about school, then go back and learn something!"

Sora immediately stopped and let go of his arm. Roxas sprinted up the street till his legs gave out. He lain at the side of the old clock tower and began to cry. Hot tears flooded from his eyes and on to the brick street that Roxas laid on.

After a long five minutes, he picked himself up and made his way up to the top of the tall tower. He threw his backpack at the same spot and sat on the edge of the tower. He didn't bother looking at his homework since he knew he was going to fail his class. He pulled out his KDS and bored himself by defeating the same computer opponents every time.

He took in a deep sigh and looked out to admire the orange and red hues that the setting sun made. Roxas stared at the sun for so long that he didn't even notice the flashing screen on his KDS. He thought that the battery was low till he read the flashing words.

"NEW CHALLENGER"

He clicked on the person's profile and saw their screen name is "Pyro Freak" and their character's level surpasses Roxas's character by a staggering thirty levels. Roxas didn't know who this person was but he was ready to fight them. He accepted his challenge and the battle begin.

Roxas was performing his normal strategy and was beating his new opponent like he'd expected.

"_Just because you are a higher level than me, doesn't mean that you can defeat me." _Roxas thought.

His opponent was down on the ground, and he was about to perform his finishing move. But then the opponent started to flash a bright light that blinded Roxas. He held up his arm to cover his eyes from the unusual spectacle.

When he thought it was over, he slowly removed his arm and saw the screen. There, clearly written in flashing words.

"YOU LOSE!"

Roxas was in total awe; his jaw dropped and his once undefeated score was now tainted by the blood colored words that appeared on the screen. He wanted to cry.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, Roxas saw a shadow move behind the corner of the tower. He stood up to follow the shadow but the bells struck at six o' clock which means he was late.

"Oh crap, I go to be late for dinner!"

He grabbed his backpack and sprinted down the endless staircase and exploded out the door. He ran and ran till he realized that his mother is rarely home, so what was the point in running to empty house.

He walked the lonely streets in the cool wind that combed his curly and yet spiky hair. He closed his eyes and inhaled the summer night air and slowly opened them to find that his house lights were on inside. He walked a faster to the brightly lit building and then found himself at the front of the door.

"Mom?" Roxas put his bag slowly on the wood floor and walked slowly and cautiously to the kitchen. As he was approaching the entrance he heard his mom laughing and stranger's voice.

_What the hell. _He burst into the kitchen to see his mom in her favorite red dress and serving food the last person he wanted to see at the end of the day.

"Hello Roxas." He said in a crooked grin.

"Hi Axel." Roxas looked at the floor to avoid any eye contact. He was embarrassed, very embarrassed.

"Roxas what took you so long?" His mother asked. _Oh crap._ Roxas need an excuse and he needed one now.

"Um… I was…ahh." _Damn it Roxas think of something!_ Then Axel put down his cup of tea and explained in a cool, relaxed voice.

" Roxas wanted to study more of course." Roxas jolted and looked at Axel with big eyes.

"It's true believe me, Roxas and I were walking home and suddenly said to me 'I worried about the exams and my grade' so then he told me that he was going to the library to study more." Roxas was surprised and dumbfounded.

"That's odd Roxas never done that before." His mother was confused by the whole situation.

Axel took another sip. "He just wanted to surprise you." His sharp green eyes sparkled and dazzled Roxas's mother.

"Well I guess there's no harm done." Roxas's eyes were still fixed on Axel. Axel was aware of his stare and looked back at him from the corner of his eyes. Roxas's mother sensed some tension.

"Uh… Speaking of surprises." She got up and walked up over to Axel and put both hands on his shoulders.

"Since you need a study partner and Mr. Atsui…." Axel interrupted

"Please there no need to be so formal, just call me Axel."

"Oh,… well Axel needs a place to stay, he'll be living with us till your grades go up!" She ended on a cheery note.

"Uh… that's… great news." He weakly grinned and scratched the back of his head. His mouth said " I'm so happy to hear." His head said one word. _"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_


	3. Grades

When To Love

Chapter 3

Grades

Roxas started up the stairs and started running till he was out of sight of his mother and Axel.

"_Shit, why did this have to happen to me"_

Roxas slammed the door to his room and started to rummage through his plies of clothes that he never bothered to wash. He was looking for his last line of communication to his closest friend.

"Found it!" he exclaimed in relief.

It was the cell phone that his mother got him for birthday. Roxas found the cellular device worthless and used to play games on but now it was an object of importance in his time of need. He quickly dialed the numbers on the cell phone pad. His heart began to quicken as he dialed in each number one by one. It started to ring on the other side and Roxas couldn't bare hearing the dreaded tone.

The ring echoed in his head, and sounded just as annoying as the dial up tone on a computer. Finally someone picked up.

"Hello."

"Sora! You gotta help me! Axel is at my house and he's kissing up to my mom right now! Help me here." The frantic Roxas plead to Sora. But all he heard was

silence on the phone.

"Sora? Sora, are you there? Talk to me man!" Then he heard a sign of struggle on the other side and all Roxas can do was panic and scream Sora's name.

"Sora! What's going on? Is someone there! Talk to me! Scream or something!"

"Sora's alright." A cool voice answered Roxas. He was now talking to Sora's attacker on the phone. He wanted to know _"Who are you! What happened to Sora? Let him go!"_ But he couldn't, he just couldn't bring himself to say the words. He stood silent in the middle of his room and wait for another answer from the voice that held Sora captive.

"Well Roxas, I never expected you to forget me so fast." Roxas felt like he's heard the voice before but where?

"Give up." Roxas nodded. He didn't know he nodded he was on the phone no one could see him.

"It's Riku." A picture of the silver headed man flashed through Roxas's head.

"Don't worry, Sora is in my _hands_ at the moment."

"What have you done to him." Roxas demanded.

"Nothing, yet." Roxas felt the sweat beading down on his forehead.

"My friend Axel hasn't told you? Oh dear, what a shame. I never thought I would one to spoil the surprise we had in store for you to."

"What?"

"Yes, it's a big surprise that Axel and I have planned for the both of you for a _very, very long time._" Roxas wondered why he put so much emphasis on the last words he said.

"Then again I don't want to hurt Axel, this _was his _idea after all." At that moment Roxas felt someone pulling the cell phone away from his ear. The beep from his cell phone ended the call and sent chills down Roxas's back for he knew who was standing behind him.

"So this is the cell phone your mom gave you for your fourteenth birthday. Dang! It's so out dated I'm surprised it still works." Axel joked.

He smirked and looked down at Roxas. He stopped smirking when he saw him scowling at him with some tears in his eyes.

"Oh…uh, I mean. I've always wanted this phone. I've been trying to look for this phone for a long time. It's great no?"

Roxas only kept scowling at Axel with the tears in his eyes.

_"Shit, you really done it this time Axel."_ The red head thought.

"Look, I'm sorr—Oof!"

Axel took a direct hit to the chin by Roxas. He stood in a fighting pose that a character would do when they encountered an enemy.

"What the hell was that for!"Axel cradled his chin in pain.

"You son of a bitch! What do you want with me and Sora! Tell me what this _surprise _you've been planning with that Riku guy!" Axel sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Geez Riku, you really know how to ruin something."

"What was that!" Roxas shouted.

"Nothing I was talking to myself. But that's not the point; the surprise that Riku mentioned won't be given to you yet." Axel started for the door till…

"Pervy old homo." Axel stopped in his tracks and let his hand rest on the doorknob just for a little bit.

"What did you just call me?" Axel restrained most of his anger in his voice.

"You…You, pervy old homo! You probably raped a thousand people to get where you are now. You're nothing but a man whore!"

At that moment Axel snapped.

"So, that's how you want to play." Axel said darkly.

He turned around and stared at Roxas with his emerald green eyes. They were full of a fire that is only seen when he is mad; this frightened Roxas for it felt that the pair of precious stones pierced through his fighting spirit.

"You are so dead, you little shit." Axel got into boxer's fighting position not caring that he still held Roxas's cell phone. They stood frozen in each other's stare for only a moment. Roxas made the first move and ran toward Axel with a fist aiming toward his face. Then the door swung open.

"Axel, I finished cleaning the room you're staying in." Roxas's mother singed in a soft voice. She saw the two in their fighting stance and began to wonder what they were doing.

"What on earth are you two doing?" She questioned the two fighters.

Axel thought of a lie.

"I was showing Roxas how to fight of potential _man whores_." Axel glared at Roxas as he said the last few words. Roxas's mother blinked a couple of times but fell for the fib.

"I see… Well I'll show you to your room." The two left the room leaving Roxas in his solitary confinement. But Roxas was curious of Axel's room location, so he peered out from the crack of his room and saw something that broke his heart. The room that his mother lead Axel to was the room that his mother and father slept in. To a mere person, this seems rather ridiculous, right? Not to Roxas.

A flood of memories rushed in to the young blondes head of when he was a small boy and his father was still alive. Roxas's mother was always at work or on business trips and at night it can be frightening, very frightening especially to a four year-old boy. He snapped out of his trance and saw Axel toss his suitcase on to the bed. This was the last straw he needed to talk to his mother about this.

"Mom, what are you doing?! You're letting Axel sleep in your room?! You can't do that! That's, that's … so wrong!" Roxas complained to his mother as she started to pack her suitcase for another business trip.

"Oh Roxas, stop complaining. It's just till your grades go up that's all." His Mother tried to reason with him.

"Mom that's pointless it's too late to fix my grades now! It's almost summer and everyone is planning for summer. Shouldn't we be doing that also?" Roxas whined.

"Oh stop it Roxas, Summer isn't in four months and you hate it. Plus you have plenty of time to make up for your grades." Roxas mother protested in a stern voice.

"But mom-"

"No buts, Axel is staying till you raise your grades. Honestly Roxas you were such a good boy who never got in trouble." Roxas hung his head in embarrassment and sat on the bed next to his mother's suitcase.

"Mom."

"Hmm… What is it?"

"When are you going to be back."

"I don't know hon, This is one of those trips that I never know when my work will be done."

"How long will you be gone." She thought for a moment.

" Probably till the school year is over."

"That long?!" Roxas sprang up from the bed and stood in shock.

" I know it sounds long but that is another reason that Axel needs to stay here."

"You're going to leave me here with him! Mom I've been home so many times before why do I need supervision." Roxas retorted.

"Because if something were to happen, I know I can rely on someone to tell me."

"Are you saying that you don't trust me?"

"No, I'm saying that if something were to happen to **you** someone can tell me."

"Why can't you let Sora stay with me." Roxas's mother grimaced at the thought of Sora staying with Roxas while she was away.

"Look Sora's a good kid but he's not my first candidate to watch over you. I want an adult to this kind of job."

"But you always say that I should learn survival skills."

"You'll still be learning that just with some adult supervision." The word "adult" just give Roxas shivers down his back.

Hours after talking with his mother, Roxas sat in his bed and stared at the moon. Left alone with his thoughts, he began to cry. His face was expressionless, fat tears rolled down his face not caring if someone were to walk in and see him in a pitiful state. He cried all night and only muttered the words "dad".

Sunlight awoke Roxas from his slumber; he shielded his eyes from the blinding light and turned to see the time on his alarm clock only to read "7:45AM"

"OH SHIT!" Roxas exploded from his bed and rushed to get ready, as usual.

He climbed down the stairs and went into the kitchen to grab a piece of toast to eat on his sprint to school. But upon entering the kitchen he saw the most amazing sight in his life.

The bare kitchen table was covered with plates of toast, pancakes, eggs, French toast, and anything that Roxas could think of was all on the table.

"So I see that you up now." The voice made Roxas shoot up his head and saw his problem was still there. He saw Axel reading the paper in one had and sipping coffee in the other hand. He slowly peered from behind the paper and gave Roxas a slow, long smirk. Roxas gulped in astonishment.

"Axel, did you make all this?"

"Well yeah, I thought I could make some use out of your cookware instead of the spiders." Axel said in cool, teasing like voice.

Roxas took another glance at the marvelous food that was calling his name. Till he realized that he was late for school along with Axel.

"I appreciate that you made all of this food but I don't have time to eat it all. I'm really late to school today." Roxas started for the door.

"Whoa slow down Roxas, we have time to eat. Sit down and relax." Axel took a sip of his coffee and began to read the newspaper again.

"Axel I understand that you're new to my school but incase you haven't read the bell schedule school starts at eight o' five." Roxas pointed to his watch to point out that the time was now "7:51AM".

"Don't worry I'm never late. As long you're with me you won't be either."

Roxas was surprised but still worried about getting another detention. Then again, he knew that Axel was only ticket out of trouble since is he was suppose to tutor him. He sat in a chair and begun to eat the bountiful meal that sat in front of him.

When he was done his watch said "8:01AM" Roxas spat out his milk and started to panic.

"Axel! Axel! We need to get going! School starts in four minutes!" Roxas shook his arm and tried to get him to stand up but he knew that would render useless. Axel looked at the clock and the seconds that ticked by. He saw the change from eight o' one to eight o' two and so did Roxas. He smirked and got off from his seat and lead Roxas to the garage. Roxas didn't know what to expect but a sheet covering a type of transportation that he hoped that would take him to school before the bell rang.

"Behold." Axel then grabbed the sheet and pulled it off to expose a sleek red armored motorcycle with a black strip that had his name in white. The wheels had a chrome finish in which Roxas could see his reflection and saw what a mess he had made on himself during breakfast.

"Wow, that you're ride." Roxas said in amazement.

"Yeah, it gets me where I want to be."

Roxas glanced at his watch again and saw another two minutes had pasted. He then snapped back into his panicky state and complained to his red headed tutor. Axel didn't want to hear Roxas's complaining so he mounted his bike and tossed Roxas a helmet.

"Get on _Little Man_."

Roxas paused for only a second and mounted the bike as put the helmet on. The garage door opened and the motorcycle roared to life. Roxas clung on to Axel as the machine was running at its full speed. He was a bit scared till he slowly opened his eyes and saw everything in a new perspective; it was so different from what normally see during his walk to school. All things around him were a fast blur and the wind combed through his hair. It was an amazing feeling almost as if he were flying like a bird taking flight before it went up into the air.

Yet, one thing bothered him. Why did Axel called him 'Little Man'? Just hearing it from Axel was awkward, because his father use to call him that. No one else was allowed to call Roxas that, it was only between him and his father. A sacred name only between father and son.

"We're here."

Roxas snapped of his thought and saw that they were in the school parking lot with only one minute to spare. Roxas stood there speechless.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Oh, um… sorry."

"For what?"

"For doubting you back at home."

"Well, I told before. I'm never late to class."

"I believe you."

Both then proceeded to their classrooms.

Roxas once again listen to his teacher's lecture on biology. His teacher didn't bother calling him out in class now that Axel was living with him to raise his grades. Roxas gave out a big, long but silent, yawn; till something came in contact with his face. He let out a pained that alerted his teacher to turn around. Roxas quickly hid behind his textbook in embarrassment and to find a paper airplane on the ground right next to him.

He picked and unfolded the areal craft to see the message inside.

"Roxas

Met us after school at the clubhouse.

Don't tell anyone ESPECIALLY Axel.

Hayner"

"Great," Roxas thought to himself, "Now I'm gonna have to a way to avoid Axel afterschool."

The final bell rang throughout the school and a rush of students proceed out the door to their longing freedom. Roxas bolted out of the door and ran to the clubhouse as fast as his legs could take him. At last Roxas was away from school, away from his problems and away from Axel. As soon as Roxas approached the entrance to the clubhouse he could hear Hayner's enthusiastic speech was commencing.

"Hey sorry I'm late you guys." Pence, Ollete, and Hayner's attention was then drawn to Roxas. Hayner puffed out his chest and approached Roxas with an angry face.

"You better be sorry! We were starting to talk about our summer plan!"

"Oh! How could I forget." As mush as Roxas loathed summer and summer school, his friends always made it a little better each year by planning what to do to annoy teachers, pull a prank on the whole school, and competition with Seifer and his gang.

"So what are we doing this year in summer school?" Roxas said as he casually put both arms behind his head. Not knowing that his friends gave him a weird look.

Ollete started "Roxas umm… I don't know how to tell you this but…" She looked at Hayner and Pence and they signaled her to continue.

"Roxas, we're not going to summer school."

"What?"

"We're not going to summer school."

Roxas looked at his friends in confusion.

"Is that our prank this year?"

They looked away and started to feel uneasy by Roxas's response. Hayner extended his hand and placed it on Roxas's shoulder.

"What she meant is that we are not going to summer school to learn," He paused and tried to find the right words, "We're not going to summer school at all. Our grades have gone up ever since Axel and Riku started to tutor our class." This hit Roxas like a ton of bricks. That means if he didn't get his grades up by the time school ends…


	4. Challenger

When To Love

Chapter 4

Revealed

Roxas slowly walked down the streets of Twilight Town while kicking a can. He couldn't believe how all his friends are not going to summer school and he'll be left behind…

What could he do now the school year is ending? There are only a couple tests till the final for all his classes. If he didn't do well on the next test then he would have to get a perfect score on his final to raise his grade.

That's impossible. Unless…

He asked Axel for help.

That would be the death of Roxas. Just the idea of him asking Axel for help made him squeamish. Then again he had no more options; and Axel is his only hope.

He reached his destination, the Clock Tower, at last. Roxas slowly made his way to the top of the tower remembering how he and his friends would always climb up the stairs after summer school to watch the sunset while eating sea salt ice cream. Those fond memories put a hole in his heart knowing that there was a possibility of that not happening anymore. Roxas shed a few tears on his ascend to the top.

Once he was at the top, he saw the sun setting in the distance as he was sitting on the edge of the tower. It brought back the memory of when Hayner was bragging about his victorious battle between Seifer and wouldn't shut up about it for two hours. It brought a smile to his face but only for a moment for he knew that if he wants to keep making memories during the summer he needs to focus on the important subject, school. He looked in his backpack to find, not his homework but, the frustration, the teacher, and his friends telling him he can't do it.

Roxas threw his backpack to the other side of the tower and started cry in anger and confusion. He hugged his legs and let his hot tears flow to his knees.

"What am I going to do? I can't do anything?" He repeated that over and over again till a flashing light came from his pocket. He pulled out his KDS and examined the message that appeared on the screen.

"Hey, don't be sad!

There will always be hope.

I'm always with you so don't you ever cry.

You got it!"

The sender was unknown. Usually Roxas would delete those types of messages but this time it made him feel better so he kept it for the time being. He switched modes on his KDS to his game that he would always play with Sora but since Sora's time is spent with Riku he had no one to play with. Roxas battled against computers and gained experience points with each round. It bored his to tears till he saw the message again. "NEW CHALLENGER" in bold red letters flashing on the screen.

Roxas accepted the challenge to find it was the same person that stained his perfect record, Pyro. This time Roxas wanted revenge and it would be sweet. Roxas battled out the challenger bringing his character to his knees once again and this time he made sure he stayed down for good. He used his secret move on Pyro that he has never used before, not even on Sora (for he knew Sora would cry if he did that to his character.) Then it happened again that move that Pyro used in the past that defeated Roxas and brought shame to his perfect record.

He was defeated in a split second and it didn't take long for Roxas to have reality set in. Then as he was getting up from the edge of the tower he saw something go around the corner and he knew that it was his opponent from his game and he knew that he must confront him. Or tell him off.

Roxas quietly slid against the wall and peered around the corner to get a better look at his opponent of real life. He saw that the person was really tall with tight black jeans and black jacket with the hood over his head and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Roxas saw the light coming from his KDS and saw the words appear on his screen that he wanted to show up on his KDS. As soon as the mysterious person closed his KDS Roxas took the chance to pounce on him. Roxas lept and pinned the guy on the ground.

"I got you! You- Axel?" Roxas landed right on top of not-so-mystery-person.

"Ah geez, what was that for?" Axel was rubbing the bump on his head that he got on impact from Roxas.

"You're Pyro? What the hell!"

"Okay I beat you in game, that doesn't mean that you have the right to try and kill me."

"Why didn't you tell me!"

"Uh, Roxas…"

"Don't change the subject! You're suppose to be my tutor remember!" Roxas pouted and crossed his arms in frustration.

"One, it's supposed, two, I don't mean to alarm you but was that your backpack that fell off the tower just now."

Roxas looked over the place that his backpack was resting on, only to find papers flying in the wind.

"Oh my God! My tests!" Roxas bolted from his position (and kicked Axel's face in the process) to look over and to see that his backpack was falling to the street below. Roxas made his way down the stairs to try and catch his bag even though he knew he wouldn't make it. As soon as he burst out of the door he saw Seifer laying on the ground with his gang around him and questioning the sudden appearance of the backpack.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Seifer was furious

Roxas wanted to hide behind a corner but he was wide open for an attack at any given time. _Oh shit, I'm fucked._ Roxas wanted to run away, he really did but he couldn't find the strength to move his legs.

"Hey you guys look at these test scores, they're absolutely horrendous." Fuu passed a couple of papers to the gang to examine.

"Whoa! These are so bad, ya know!"

"Who could ever get these scores?"

"Don't know Vivi but whoever it is they are one dumb piece of shit that's for sure."

"Hey back off!" Roxas approached them with a confident stride. Ironically he wasn't confident at all he just went to them to save his reputation, which is too late now.

"So, you're the one who's been getting these bad scores huh?"

"You're one to talk Seifer, I bet you have the same grades as I do."

"Likewise." Fuu intervened and held her test that showed a higher mark than Roxas' test.

"We've been getting help none other than-"

At that moment Axel came up to Roxas' side and placed his hand on his shoulder and pulled Roxas closer.

"Speak of the devil himself, Axel you came to join the party." Seifer stretched out his arms to welcome his tutor but Axel was not amused nor in the mood to take the gesture.

"What are you doing to Roxas." His voice was filled with rage

"Nothing. We were showing Roxy here what the difference between him and I."

"So you were making fun of Roxas. You know I don't like that."

"Still trying to keep _that _promise, huh?"

Roxas knew that Axel was trying to protect him but, what is _that_ promise?

"Axel, what does he mean by _that_ promise?"

"You don't know Roxy?"

"Shut up Seifer."

"It was a promise Axel made to your dad a long time ago."

"What?"

"Don't listen to him Roxas, everything he says is a lie."

Axel didn't want this to go any farther then it already has; he pulled Roxas to his chest and took a battle stance.

"You aren't actually gonna fight me are ya?"

"I'm going to protect Roxas even if it means that I have to fight you."

Seifer backed off a little but he didn't take it seriously. Without warning Seifer charged at Axel thinking that he couldn't fight with Roxas in his arms.

He was wrong.

Seifer went flying and landed hard in the sidewalk with a bruise on his face.

"SEIFER!" His gang ran toward him to help him up. Roxas wasn't sure what happened, it was all too fast. One second he saw Seifer running toward Axel the next second he sees Seifer trying to get up.

"Damn! Axel you really have changed!"

And with that he left.

Axel let go of Roxas and gathered the papers on the ground. Roxas helped him but didn't say a word to him and the silence continued on the walk home. It was a good thing that Roxas' mother wasn't home or she'll be bombarding them with questions.

He put down his backpack and headed up stairs till Axel grabbed his arm. Their eyes locked which seemed like forever.

"Roxas about earlier today, I'm sorry."

"No, I should be apologizing, if I didn't pin you down then that wouldn't have happened."

Silence fell upon them again.

"Roxas go to bed, I'll tell the teacher to excuse you from tonight's homework."

"Okay." Roxas said weakly and made his way up to his room.

"Roxas."

"Yeah?"

"What Seifer said earlier, what he said was a lie. Please forget it."

"I will." _I won't_ he continued to walk upstairs.

He settled himself in his bed and stared at the sky. He breath started to slow, eyelids grew heavy, and sleep set in.

What will tomorrow bring? What is this promise that Axel and Seifer talked about? Do they have a past together? How does it tie in with his father and himself?

Nothing will ever be the same that's for sure.

* * *

I'm so sorry that this story wasn't updated in such a long time and I am sooooooooooooooooooo sorry!

This chapter is short but I promise that I'll make the next chapter longer and better!

R&R!

Bye!


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